Leah added: “I’ve lost the most important person in my life, me and my dad were like best friends.

“Everyone liked him in the pub, he didn’t have any trouble with anyone until Derek (Bentham) came along.”

Mr Christy had been drinking with a close friend in the Bears Paw, and got up to go to the toilet.

Bentham, who was also in the pub, followed him a short time later and began his premeditated attack.

He assaulted Lee from behind, knocking him to the ground, before climbing on top of him and repeatedly punching him in the face. He then grabbed his victim and started head-butting him.

Eventually he climbed off Mr Christy and began to walk away before turning back and kicking him one last time as he lay on the ground.

Bentham then walked out of the toilets and left the pub with his girlfriend.

Despite being so seriously injured that he had to be carried out of the toilets, Mr Christy managed to make it home to his flat across the road before an ambulance arrived to take him to hospital, where he died from an abdominal haemorrage on September 18.

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